A Strange Coincidence

 The day after I wrote about Double Delusion, it appeared in one of my own games. That might seem like a strange coincidence, but these things happen a lot more often than we think.

N.N. - Me (Open Tournament, 2024)

The Knight on d5 had been a nuisance for a long while. There's a fork on e7, at the moment covered by the Queen. I decided to chase the Night away with 1...Rf5 to free the Queen for other tasks. (That's actually not the best move. 1...Bd4! 2.Nc3 Bxc3 3.bxc3 h4! wins, but that was clearly above my level).

Now, the delusion. 2.Re1?? Black thought that Qxd5 wasn't possible because of Ne7+, forking King, Queen and Rook. Very beautiful, except for the Knight is now off the board, and may no longer participate. Nc7 would have saved the Knight.

My immediate impulse was Qxd5 winning the Knight, but then I saw the fork. Shock and terror! Then I remembered the game Ebralidze - Ragozin I wrote about the day before, and managed to calm down a bit. I forced my to visualise the position after Qxd5 (not too hard to do, being just one move ahead) and realised that there is no longer a fork since the Knight is gone. 

2. Qxd5 and White resigned.

Takeaway

Face your fears! Whenever you're overcome with the "I can't do that" feeling, try to think "I want to do that". Most delusions can be cleared by visualising the position after the move you want to play. It worked for me in this game, and it would have worked in Ebralidze - Ragozin too.